There are many ethical topics we have discussed in this class concerning cybersecurity. We have examined these topics using several different ethical lenses to come to our conclusions. This allowed us to form different opinions and learn new things than if we had used our own personal ethical lenses every time. Some of the most interesting topics for me were privacy, corporate social responsibility, and information warfare.

One thing we discussed during our time in class was privacy. Do people deserve privacy? Is it ever ok to violate someone’s privacy? These are difficult questions to answer. Before this class, I think I would have said that people always deserve privacy. In some ways, I still agree with this. People do deserve privacy. Privacy allows people to let their guard down, be vulnerable, and truly be themselves around the people that they have chosen to let in. It is important that people have that time to relax and take off their “public face.” In this sense, privacy is vital. However, my opinions on this topic have gained a little more nuance. Instead of a blanket “people deserve privacy,” I think it is more accurate to say that people deserve to have a reasonable expectation of privacy. There are different levels of privacy that people experience based on where they are or what they are doing. People’s privacy is different inside their homes, in their yards, in a store, posting on a private profile on social media, or live streaming a video that is viewable by the public. People need to temper their expected privacy levels based on their location and situation, and it is on them to determine if their actual level of privacy meets their expected level of privacy.

Another topic that we discussed in this class was corporate social responsibility. Before this class, I would have said that a business’s only responsibility was to conduct its business in generally acceptable or ethical ways in order to make money. By generally ethical, I mean that they shouldn’t be out there killing people or releasing toxins into the environment to make their money; they still must operate within the law. Now, I would say that the way a business spends its money or conducts its affairs depends on the business, although it still must always operate within the law. Some businesses do operate only to make money and always will. By doing this, it encourages innovation and growth within the business. However, some businesses have other goals, and that is okay. Some companies earn money so that they can put that money back into researching an important (to them and society) topic. Other companies have goals of improving the environment through their products. Some companies earn money so they can put it back into their communities. I think it is up to the company to decide what its main objectives are and to fulfill its specific objectives. They should, however, make their main objectives clear so that stockholders, employees, customers, and everyone else are all on the same page and understand why things are operating the way that they are. It should not be up to the public to decide how a business should spend its money. Each company has the right to decide its mission statements and determine what actions they need to take to best fulfill their goals.

A third thing that we discussed during this class is information warfare. Before this class, I only understood the general idea behind information warfare. I didn’t understand the specifics of how it worked or if it really actually worked. Now, I believe that information warfare is absolutely a real thing that is employed by individuals, organizations, and even entire governments to further their own agendas. I now understand how easy it is to manipulate the information people receive. This is due to the way that we now consume so much of our news through social media. Algorithms can turn a single one of your thoughts into a rabbit hole or an echo chamber so that you never even get the chance to see a conflicting point of view. People don’t even realize how much this is going on and how greatly it influences their thoughts and ideas. Through just a few dedicated individuals and maybe some bot accounts, people can easily turn falsehoods into generally accepted views. People think fake news is real and base their opinions and behaviors on it. It is absolutely a war that is being fought. The problem is that it is so subtle, people don’t even realize that they are in the middle of the war. It is imperative that people seek out the truth and topics from multiple sources with differing views if they want to make a truly informed opinion. Otherwise, there are people out there that will craft their opinions for them.

One thing I loved about this class was that not only helped me understand how others might be thinking based on other ethical frameworks, but it also helped me clarify my own ethical framework. I also learned a lot about cybersecurity as it relates to ethical issues. Many of these topics I knew little about or hadn’t really considered before. Now, I know more about privacy, corporate social responsibility, and information warfare, among other things. I now have an idea of how to take these topics and apply them to real-life situations if they come up in the future.